DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Longhorn Chassis takeover evident at Eldora | Daily 4-19-2023

Coming up we're talking Flo Night in America late models at Eldora, Kyle Larson in a modified, and some thoughts about weekly track purses after Lernerville made some changes. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, April 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

We had the FloRacing Night in America Series opener last night at Eldora. Mike Marlar was your winner after dominating much of the 50 lap feature. Hudson O'Neal started fifth and really seemed to just hang around through the first half, but he started moving forward as the race wore on. At one point Marlar had like a five second lead, and O'Neal was able to run him down which was pretty damn impressive. The Rocket one would have probably won the thing driving away, but two mistakes in less than a lap cost O'Neal the $23,000 win. He took the lead with six to go, but banged the wall out of four coming to three to go, and he was again in the concrete down the backstretch the next lap. That backstretch hit was the end of his bid, as the Rocket machine slowed suddenly after that with a flat right rear. A caution ensued, and a trip to the infield for a new right rear tire left O'Neal with a 12th place finish. Out front, nobody else had anything for Marlar, and he drove away on the restart for the victory. Tim McCreadie went eighth to second, and Tanner English 17th to third. Of the 54 car field, there were a few surprises in terms of guys not making the main event. On the outside looking in included Garrett Alberson, Kyle Strickler, Billy Moyer, Brian Shirley, and Tyler Erb. Erb and Alberson are supposedly running for this championship, but are already in big holes after night one. One other surprising note from last night was the fact that there were just two Rocket chassis in the main event. They were O'Neal and Kyle Bronson. The rest were Longhorns, except for Ricky Weiss' Sniper, and Austin Kirkpatrick's own AK car. Looking ahead to tonight, the Flo Series moves about three hours away down to Brownstown Speedway for another $23,000 to win show. Jonathan Davenport dominated this one a season ago, starting third, but winning over Bobby Pierce by five seconds. I would guess we'll see a similar car count to last night with something around 50 cars incoming.

Somebody mentioned this last week when we talked about the first High Limit race and my criticisms of the opening night and I wanted to bring it up today. Flo really goes all in on these late model shows, and one example is the studio setup with Michael Rigsby and DSuave. It's not something you see for anything else, and I'm a bit surprised that same playbook wasn't used for the High Limit sprint cars. I don't know exactly what the breakdown is for Flo's involvement with High Limit, but since they really got this midweek thing rolling with the late models, you would have thought they would have just put the same plan in place for the sprint cars. The at home and streaming audience is clearly a big deal for these Tuesday and Wednesday races, and the studio setup is obviously just in place for those watching at home. If Brad Sweet and his High Limit crew are looking for ways to punch things up, that might be a conversation to have with Flo.

Also last night, on top of running 10th in the late model, Kyle Larson made his UMP modified debut behind the wheel of Justin and Mike Allgaier's number seven machine. The car is a Nick Hoffman Elite chassis, and Larson made his first time in a mod look easy. He won his heat, started sixth in the feature, took the lead six laps in, and drove away to the win. Not super surprising given Larson's prowess around Eldora, combined with Hoffman's pretty damn good cars, and Hoffman was there to not only coach but also run the sticks. Afterwards, Larson said he's three for three winning races when Hoffman is his stick guy. Apparently Hoffman helped with both of Larson's Chili Bowl wins from the turn two grandstands, plus last night. Yung Money now has wins in seven different divisions at Eldora. That includes a non-wing sprint car, midget, Silver Crown car, NASCAR truck, winged sprint car, dirt late model, and now modified. That's a pretty wild feat.

In some race track news yesterday, Lernerville Speedway announced they have upped their purses for all four weekly divisions. 410 sprint cars now pay $2000 to win up from about $1600 to win a year ago. The late model division had a similar increase from about $1600 to $2000. Big block modifieds are now $1600 up from about $1200, and pro stocks are $600 up from $405. If you race there weekly, that's certainly good news. In terms of tracks around it though, Lernerville is still very much on the low end for those to-win amounts when you compare it to the Central PA tracks and the Ohio tracks. Tri City Raceway Park up north pays $2000 to win and 300 to start, but all the other main Ohio and PA tracks all pay better to win and most pay better to start. I'm not going to spend today's show crapping on Lernerville for their lower weekly payouts, but it is an interesting track to look at when you talk about race teams and available purses. We've seen plenty of complaints about Ohio purses, and teams and drivers there wanting more cash like we see from Central PA tracks, but Lernerville, which pays even less than Ohio, still manages to draw decent fields of 410s and late models each week. After Lernerville put out their news, I had a 410 driver message me about it and he brought up the fact that his team can't justify racing at Lernerville with what they offer. And I'm sure there are plenty of others who don't show up there because of the money. You can certainly go a few hours in either direction and do much better, but the competition also ramps up. And I think that's a point to make here with purse money in general. In some way, purse money in dirt racing creates some measure of a cost and competition cap. The main Ohio guys, or somebody like Danny Dietrich or Anthony Macri are not going to roll into Lernerville weekly, because even if they win, there isn't a ton of money to make. And on the flip side, those guys that race at tracks that pay less don't have to worry about trying to compete with the higher profile guys. That means they can go longer on engine rebuilds, and don't need the latest and greatest of everything to compete, so less money needs to be spent. But also, if teams are going to continue supporting tracks that pay lower purses, then obviously there is no reason or incentive for those tracks to raise said purses. It's not different than what we see in non-wing racing. Guys complain about those non-wing purses, but a $1500 to win weekly show in Indiana will often get 25, 30, or 35 cars. If they keep showing up and supporting those races, then it's hard to hear their complaints. Just something for you to think about and chew on for your Wednesday.

In podcast land this week, Winged Nation has Lance Dewease and Craig Mintz, Open Red has Jack Harris, Passing Points down under has Mitch Randall, Forward Bite has Derrick Eshelman and Ozzie Altman, Ohio Dirt has Byron Reed, Quicktime has Brian Schnee, All Gas No Brakes has Logan Roberson, Hoogie's Garage has Clinton Boyles, Dunewich on Dirt has Brianna Lawson and Joey Chapman, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters, The Dirt Nerds, and Dirt Track Confessions. See all the shows, all the episodes at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

Five more shows today across the streaming services. That includes the Flo night in America late models from Brownstown on FloRacing, plus Flo 24/7. DIRTVision has micros from Millbridge and DIRTVision Now. And Speed Sport has IMCA racing from Stuart International. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.